Dispensing cartons are known. Conventional dispensing cartons may have a top panel with a dispensing feature formed therein. Such cartons may be used to contain articles such as beverage containers, for example, that are dispensable through the top panel or through another panel when the carton is opened. Typically, conventional cartons must be refrigerated in order to keep the enclosed containers cool. When the cartons are no longer refrigerated, such as when the carton is removed from the refrigerator to dispense the containers, the containers may become undesirably warm. The containers must then be refrigerated again or otherwise cooled. Further, the dispensing features included in conventional cartons may render the cartons incapable of being securely reclosed once opened. Articles retained within the carton may therefore inadvertently fall out of the carton once the carton has been opened.
Conventional cartons are typically formed from a single ply of paperboard or similar material. Carrying handles may be formed in one or more panels of the carton and used to carry the carton. Because cartons are often used to carry relatively heavy articles, such as beverage containers, the strength of the handles or other sections of the cartons must be increased in order to accommodate the carton load. A conventional method for increasing the load-bearing capacity of a paperboard carton is to produce the carton from a blank of a different, stronger paperboard material, or to produce the blank from the same carton material but having greater thickness or caliper. Such conventional methods typically increase the costs associated with manufacturing the carton, with the material costs of manufacture generally increasing according to the cost of increasing the strength and/or thickness of the entire blank. Some sections of the blank, however, may not be load-bearing, and the additional costs associated with increasing the strength of non-load bearing sections of the blank are wasted.